Songbird
by Lyra Aphrodite Moon
Summary: Bellatrix, Narcissa, Lucius, Severus & a not so heartless Tom Riddle have their moments. Life is bittersweet and what happens when you’re torn between what you want to do and what you were born to do? -- **A/N: ON HIATUS.
1. Songbird Prologue

Songbird

By: Lyra Aphrodite Moon

_**Summary: Bellatrix Black – age 16 + - the only female Death Eater- young Marauders, Narcissa, Lucius, Severus & a not so heartless Tom Riddle have their moments. Life is bittersweet and what happens when you're torn between what you want to do and what you were born to do; love, hate, your heart, the expectations of others and the rest of your life? The unexpected predictable.**_

Prologue

* * *

Bellatrix Black laid on her back on the Hogwarts grounds. She was overlooking the enchanted lake, during the last days of summer, at the beginning of her 6th year.

The Tuesday midday sun was beating down on her as she rested across her school robes with her eyes closed. Her body was shaped like a muggle crucifix, with her legs pressed firmly together, her arms spread apart and her back slightly arched, jarring her lips slightly, as if she was trying to kiss the sun.

Most times when she left 'the group,' no one followed her; she liked it like that. Everyone – almost everyone – in _their_ circle drew some sort of line around the rest of them, a line separating themselves from the rest of the world - some blurrier than others and some nonexistent. But she had one.

She was not exactly like the other Slytherin girls or the other girls generally. She was not overly vain like her sister Narcissa, nor was she a twit, with a mudblood obsession, like her other sister Andromeda. No, definitely not. Bellatrix was smart, sassy, a rebel of a sort, who was high maintenance, yes, but worth it. She was defiant, strong willed and strong minded, with a passionate constitution that accompanied her lust for life.

She loved life, yearned to experience it and wanted to inhale all of it. There were times she thought she was going mad; moments when she laughed not knowing why she found the morbid things funny. And there were times when she woke up sweating at nights feeling guilty. She didn't know why she felt guilty but she just did.

"Are you attending tonight?" a shadow said, blocking the sunlight from her face.

She opened her eyes to find Lucius Malfoy and Rudolphus Lestrange gawking at her.

Bellatrix sat up awkwardly, smoothened out her skirt and replied, "Hello, to you too Lucy."

"Do you ever give straight answers?" Lucius countered, clearly agitated by her latest nickname for him. He hated it, naturally, appalling really.

"Do the words silent as the grave mean anything to you?" she replied referring to her obvious state of wanting to be alone.

"Whose grave, love? Yours or mine?" he asked.

"So where are the rest of your trivial counterparts?" she answered his question with another one of her own mockingly. She was purposely irritating him for interrupting her solitude, "Letting Sirius take the better of you I see. At least _his_ faction is always collective. Stronger in numbers I would think. Though I can't seem to say the same for you."

Bellatrix licked her lips and started counting names on her fingers, "You seem to be lacking Snape, McNair, Nott, Crabbe and that fool Goyle. My, my you're missing five of your happy bunch, how pitiful. Do you not feel just awful? And where is dear old Parkinson? Has he forsaken you to hang around with that silly girl Dafoldil? Name after a bloody flower, next thing you know they'll name their child, something sweet and tree like, maybe Orchid, or Pansy, or Tulip?"

She batted her eyelashes at him as he narrowed his at her.

She moved a strand of hair out of her eyes and proceeded to lie back down and closed her eyes.

She knew when he moved like a venomous cat, and laid his steel hands around her neck and she let him. She wasn't nimble, she was more venomous than he could be, but she possessed the wanting and the patience that made the elite of the best _of the worthy _of their kind– lethal.

"Never talk to me that way!" he quietly hissed at her.

She kept her eyes closed and breathing normal, "You have much to learn Malfoy. So Rudy," she started.

"Do not call me that," Rudolphus told her icily.

"Will you be there tonight?" she continued to ask regardless; she felt Lucius loosening his grip around her throat - due to lack of concentration - paying more attention to what she was saying than threatening to strangle her.

Bellatrix possessed senses to die for; she knew the movements and pulses of the human body to the finest point – she felt the muscles in his fingers against her throat tremble and she knew that she could take him then.

A small crude smile came across Rudolphus's lips, "Will you?"

With the act of surprise on her side, she grabbed Lucius's hands from around her neck, flung it outwards, moved her knee between his legs and ended up on top, straddling him and while pinning his arms above his head.

She snapped her teeth at him abruptly. "Not such a big snake now are we?" she hissed, much in the same voice he used on her. That was all she wanted, a moment to show him she had the upper hand.

Bellatrix released him and tumbled delicately to his side in the original position he found her in, "Get out of my sight."

The girl was definitely mad, _pagal hai,_ fellow Slytherin Samir Patel once said about Bella after they attended the Yule Ball together. He mentioned in the future he wouldn't mind having twin girls with whomever he married - it was a good sign from the gods – double fertility to carry on the family bloodlines. She told him she didn't want kids, bloodlines were all they were good for – occasionally - and offered to castrate him.

There weren't enough words in the worldly languages of the universe to describe Bellatrix Black.

Lucius rolled over to her just as McNair, Snape and Goyle appeared coming from lunch.

"Aye, Bella," Goyle grunted waving like an idiot.

"Bella – trix," she corrected him and he laughed. She opened her eyes to glare at them, "Do the five of you have nothing better to do than to harass me? Go find Narcissa; she enjoys your smiles and flattery. You are wasting your time here."

"Who came to flatter you?" Lucius said peering at her from his up close and personal view ready to contradict his own words. He ran the tip of his tongue along the side of her cheek.

"Back to the original question," Rudolphus stated monotonously, crossing his arms over his chest, clearly not amused, "Are you attending tonight?"

"Back to the original answer," she responded, "Are you?"

Lucius rolled his eyes, exhaled, got up off the grass and simply towered above her.

"And if I told you that I was going to be there tonight, Bella-trix," Rudolphus accentuated the 'ix' of her name, "What would you say?"

"I would say, that I think you need to make up your mind about any 'if' presumptions. Then we can have this discussion," she said flatly.

"She'll be there," Severus Snape said, speaking at last.

Lucius raised a brow.

"Sevvy," a creepy smile came to her lips in a low voice.

"Belle," Severus darted his eyes at her extending the 'el' of his nickname for her like soft hot silk. No one dared to call her 'Belle', with the exception of her father, unless they planned on getting assaulted. Even so, there were only two people ever allowed to call her 'Belle', besides her father, and she had very strange relations with them both.

Severus held her stare for quite a few moments before it was broken -

"Bloody hell, I never – who in the world - that boy is absolutely, horrifically – wait until I wring his little neck…" said Narcissa Black, who was now coming across the green, ranting and raving, as usual, with one of her large round black hats on her head, adorned with one of her latest vogue sunglasses attached to her face.

Bellatrix rolled her eyes and turned over on her stomach, "Peace and quiet seems to be a misinterpreted concept by the people who seem to inhabit my life."

"What has your lacey knickers twisted?" Rudolphus inquired, clearly aggravated and not in the mood for one of Narcissa's 'all about me' hissy fits.

"Sirius! Who else besides that blasted cousin of mine! I swear I'm going to wring his little neck for what he did!" she shouted.

"He's taller and bigger than you, hardly 'little' as you put it," Bellatrix muffled from her position on the ground.

"How can you just lay there like that, for so long in the sun? I would fear getting sun burned or just turning scarlet," Narcissa pointed out, completely going off topic.

"Your name does you great justice," Severus interjected learning against the tree scowling.

Narcissa threw him a look of disgust and was about to open her mouth and comment when Alistair McNair stopped her with a question of his own, "So we are waiting, what did Sirius do to _you_ this time?"

"You make it seem like I'm the only one he torments," she said defensively throwing a sympathetic look at Severus.

"Because, dear sister, between the rest of the family, excluding all others, you are the _only one_ he torments," another muffled comment from Bellatrix.

"Well do you, or do you not want to know what he did?" Narcissa squealed.

"Why are we having this ridiculous, pointless conversation?" Rudolphus asked clearly getting more and more irritated with every passing moment, at the same time that Lucius said, "Narcissa, you want to tell us, and we are offering no objection to hearing it."

Bellatrix exhaled quietly, sat up, grabbed her things and walked away from the absurd conversation between her sister and the other purebloods.

She was stalking off, back the Slytherin common room, thanking the gods she didn't share a room with Narcissa or Andromeda, she's kill them from sheer frustration, when she ran into none other than her infamous cousin, Sirius Black.

xxx

He extended his hand to help her back up.

"You're alone," said Bellatrix.

"As you see," he answered.

"So tell me dear cousin, what brilliant form of distress did you inflict upon our dear Narcissa today?" she asked slowly letting go of his hand.

"Did you notice she was wearing a hat?" he smirked offering his arm to escort her.

She took his arm and nodded, "I turned her hair fire red – Gryffindor fire red that is," he said.

"I'm going to the dungeons," she pointed out.

"I'm going to the Astronomy Tower," he told her.

"We are arm locked, going in two separate directions, from two very different sides of the four house spectrum, I doubt we should continue farther," Bellatrix replied. She was use to this, they always played this formal game with one another. It made their relationship easier, she supposed.

"Unless one party, forgets the other's affiliation and changed direction momentarily," he retorted.

"Or neither," said Bellatrix.

"And where are your associates on this fine day _Belle_?" he asked.

"They would be deadly furious if they saw you," she answered as they changed direction and headed for the edges of the Forbidden Forrest.

xxx

Bellatrix's fingers combed through Sirius's hair as he rested his head on her lap. They sat in silence.

From their first year at Hogwarts, quiet became their best form of communication, less said, less heartbreak, no attachments.

They were extremely close as children and there were many childhood portraits of them together, laughing, playing or just sitting in each other's company - enough to fill many Black family albums. There were even two identical portraits, of the two children, hanging on the library walls of each of their family manors.

As pureblood families went, for non-immediate relatives, the two of them were a perfect, probable future match.

Marriage.

But the sharp blade of reality set in almost six years ago, when he was sorted into Gryffindor and she was sorted into Slytherin – like a proper Black child. They fought their differences as much as possible, but time changed everything; the long conversations of hopes, dreams, life and common interest shattered to sweet, serene silence of what could never be again.

"He is assembling his final group tonight," she said suddenly.

"Who?" Sirius asked.

"Thomas," her voice was low and barely audible.

"Are you going to meet him?" he already knew the answer, but asked regardless.

"I use to love to watch you with your eyes closed. I remember the day before the train left for Hogwarts, you feel asleep on mummy's bed, I was sent to awaken you for tea, but I rathered to just sit there, next to you, and watch," her words of long ago, diverting from the question everyone was asking her, made him uneasy, "I always enjoyed watching, even now."

"Belle, things are not what they use to be, you know that," he closed his eyes.

"I'm not going," her statement was flat and emotionless.

"It's your choice," he shifted slightly to move onto his side, put his hands around her waist and rest his head against her stomach.

"Nothing is ever our choice," she twirled a few of his strands around her fingers, "If we had choices, you wouldn't be in the house that you're in. You'd be with me, and I wouldn't be on the edge of the tides of change, with Senior Malfoy, Snape and Lestrange knocking on daddy's door for my hand in marriage."

"Big words Belle, but surely, they aren't the only ones?" Sirius asked her.

"Of course not, but they are the only ones whose company I can stand," she answered.

"Malfoy, I cannot remember you always hating him," he recalled.

"Indeed," was all she said.

"Snivillus?" he asked referring to Severus.

"I hate that you call him that," she spat.

"I hate him."

"I don't."

"And Lestrange?" Sirius asked.

"What about him?"

"You tell me?"

"He intrigues me. He is silent but strong, calm but spirited and his intellect amazes me."

Sirius let out a raspy laugh, "I think you already made you choice," and a genuine smile reached her lips, "He was never my first choice," she told him.

"And tell me, Belle, love, about tonight, what are you so afraid of?"

"I think I would loose myself."


	2. Chapter I  Imagine

**Chapter I – Imagine**

* * *

Night descended upon the castle and Bellatrix lay in her bed starring up at the enchanted night sky ceiling. The centaur constellations were courting one another and every ten minutes a supernova would occur. 

She was slowly drifting off to sleep when she sensed something was out of place. She bolted upright and reached for her wand as the door opened.

A hooded figure entered and she braced herself. It came over to the side of her bed and extended its arm.

She knew those hands; she remembered them as a child, watching them wield a wand gracefully and effortlessly.

She let the hands take her and lead her outside, where rain was beating down into the earth in full force.

The rain soaked her within moments and molded her nightgown to her body.

He led her into the Forbidden Forrest, far enough to know where she was. Bellatrix stopped abruptly as his hands tugged her further; she refused to go.

"No," she rasped.

"Yes," he urged.

"I'm not doing this," she hissed and withdrew her hand from his.

"Bellatrix, I said 'yes,'" he continued, with an unyielding hardness in his voice.

She turned to walk away and he grabbed her pulling her to him. She pushed forward, knocking them to the ground throwing the hood of his cloak off.

The earth was cold and muddy from the rain.

"Let me go," she hissed as he rolled her below him into the wet ground.

"No," he hissed back at her.

"I'll never be with you," she spat at him.

"I want you, Bella," he reasoned.

She was silent as she peered into his eyes.

"Where were you tonight?" he asked stroking her face.

"My bed, as you found me," she answered.

"Why didn't you come?"

"I didn't want to."

"And if I told you I wanted you to?"

"I would tell you I didn't care."

"Do I matter to you?"

"No," she lied.

"You're fascinated with me," he told her.

"You're fascinated with yourself," she answered.

"No living soul speaks to me like that," the words rolled out of his mouth like hot fluid, "and lives."

She smiled then, as he slowly released her from his grip, rolling over and allowing her to get up.

"Why did you bring me out here?" she asked him.

"Why not?" he answered.

"For the last time, I'm not going to be with you," she explained to him with venom in her voice.

"What would your father say?" he asked.

"He wouldn't say anything," she answered.

"He would rather look at you in contempt for turning your back on who you are, who you were chosen to be," he continued.

"As you say," Bellatrix quoted, "Who I was chosen to be. Not who I choose to be."

"And tell me, who do you choose to be?"

The look in her eyes grew angry, as she moved her hand to slap him. He was quick and grabbed it squeezing pain into her arm.

She took the pain without a flinch until a single tear rolled down her face, going unnoticed from the rain's drops.

"You're a black asp Bella," he seduced her with words.

"As black as your heart?" she asked unnerved.

He laughed his low, mad laugh and pulled her towards him for a kiss.

Bellatrix turned her head away; he grabbed her chin and kissed her.

She didn't move, and let her lips remain lifeless against his demanding pulses.

Her eyes were open, to look into his; his were peering into her, trying to see something she was so good at hiding – herself.

"You are a piece of work," he told her finally, his lips barely touching hers. Bellatrix remained silent.

"Why did you follow me, if you despise me so much," he asked her letting his lips slightly touch hers as he spoke.

She moved her head back slightly, closed her eyes and turned her head upwards toward the pouring sky, "Imagine."

"Imagine what?" he asked.

"The darkness," she answered.

"Whose darkness, mine or yours?" the hardness of his face was accentuated by the droplets running along his cheeks.

She turned her face to look at him, and as she reached to kiss him she answered, "Yours Tom, only yours."

She left her eyes open to observe his reaction. They were as mysterious as hers and she sensed she met her match.

"I won't be tamed," she commanded.

"Oh, but I want to tame you Bella, you need to be tamed," was the warm velvet voice of Tom Marvolo Riddle.

"Not by the likes of you."

"Only by _me_."

"I won't marry you."

"I never asked you too."

"You don't have too. I won't be yours. I'm not a possession."

"Lestrange."

"What about him?"

"When the time comes Bella, do not choose him."

"I'm not choosing anyone," she retorted icily.

"You will."

"I'm leaving."

He wouldn't let her go.

She moved in closer to him, put her lips to his with the intentions to bite him, when he quickly slid his tongue into her mouth, not allowing for any movement.

When he pulled away there was a poisonous glare in her eyes.

"You're mine," and he was gone.

She was angry when he disappeared. No one left her without her given consent. She apparated.

Bellatrix appeared before him, in his bedroom, with her wand pointed at him and narrowed eyes.

"What are you doing here, Bella?" he asked unamused.

"I didn't excuse you," she spat at him.

He laughed and moved towards her gently putting her hand down and sliding his hand around her waist.

"No one dismisses me," slicing his words into her.

"Hold me," she requested.

"I already am," he answered.

She didn't notice. She couldn't feel. Her body felt numb from the ice rain.

He muttered something and she was dry, in an unsoiled nightdress, resting against his warm chest.

Tom kissed her temple, "You can't stay here."

"Tell me."

"Yes?"

"That I can."

"I would not wish it presently."

"Yes, you do," she told him.

He picked her up and placed her on his bed, under his covers. He gently laid beside her on top the sheets, that she was below, holding her until she was asleep, or he thought she was.

Her screams woke him up. The blood from her hands surprised him; they were fisted during her nightmare, allowing her nails to dig into her own flesh.

When he woke her, she was shaking, sweating and had the look of shock in her eyes.

"It was you," she told him.

"I?" he asked, as she raised a bloodied hand to his face, leaving four faint prints across his cheek.

"You imagined."

"I did," he confirmed.

"You made snakes and skulls."

"And?" he asked.

"We became one."

He smiled when she told him her dream – a foreseen.

"You're so young," he told her.

"I'm sixteen," she said monotonously, "young enough to dream the past, old enough to imagine the future."

"What exactly?" he arched and eyebrow at her.

"The destruction of you."

xxx

"And where were you last night?" Lucius asked Bellatrix, when she sat down at the Slytherin table for breakfast the following morning.

"He chose last night," Rudolphus told her.

"I know," she answered.

"Chose what?" asked Narcissa pouring a cup of tea for herself.

Bellatrix shot her a dark look.

"Like you don't know," Andromeda slipped in. She was in her seventh year and sat at the table in silence, almost completely unnoticed.

Lucius smirked at her remark, "Well what do you know, little miss mudblood has a voice."

"She's not a mudblood," Narcissa defended, "Her blood is the same as yours, you jerk. Calling her lines dirty, are spiting on your own."

It was interesting really, how the three sisters, either hated each other dearly, or defended each other endlessly.

"I'd be more careful about who I choose to insult, Lucy," Bellatrix smirked picking up after her sisters declaration, "You wouldn't want to make him unhappy."

Andromeda sighed, picked her bag up and left the table.

"Look what you did," Narcissa scolded, "You made her leave."

She went to grab her own things, "Seriously Lucius, I swear sometimes you're such a bloody bastard," and she ran after her older sister.

Bellatrix didn't look up once, when either one of her sisters departed, but rather stared swirls into her cup of tea.

"And you? Why aren't you running after your precious sister also?" Lucius questioned.

"None of your business," she spat at him.

"Testy today aren't we?" Lucius said acidly.

"Let her be," Rudolphus interjected, "She hasn't done anything to you for the day – yet."

Bellatrix looked up then, darted her eyes from Lucius to Rudolphus and held his stare for a moment.

"I don't need you defending me," she said.

He was silent when Severus came to sit down.

"What's wrong with you?" Rudolphus asked, noticing the questionable look on his face.

"Where were you last night?" Severus asked Bellatrix.

"In my bed, where else would I be?" she asked.

"I don't know Belle, you tell me, your scent…" his thoughts trailed off.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Why must you go around smelling everything," Lucius commented.

"It's not my fault I have keener senses that you," Severus defended.

"Yes, Lucy, it's not Sevvy's fault he can tell a woombaum from a woodkart with his eyes closed. It just make him more versatile than you," she added. "Pity though, daddy Malfoy always wanted the prodigal son. Tough luck, though, he ended up with you."

If she cared, which she didn't, she would have paid more attention to the stress lines on Lucius' forehead increasing as she baited him. And if she was afraid, which she wasn't, she wouldn't have continued to push him and reap the consequences later.

"Don't you mean the prodigal daughter, Bella? We all know daddy Black likes his daughters perfect and untouched," he countered with an acid-smile reaching his lips.

She tossed Andromeda's unfinished pumpkin juice goblet at him, "Fuck you,"

and stalked out of the great hall.

"Oh darling, I'd love you to," the sounds of Lucius' laughter, as she left, made her want to wrench his throat out.

"You didn't have to tell her that," Severus said.

"She deserved it, about time we remind _your dearest Belle_ of where her place is," he responded.

"She's not mine," Severus answered.

"I would be careful what I tell her Lucius," Rudolphus told him.

"And why would I do that?" he asked.

"You might end up with snakes in your bed tonight."

xxx

Snakes indeed. Her favorite Egyptian Black Asps swirling around his bed.

A quick spell and they were gone, but not before two tried to attack him.

Rudolphus and Severus laughed as Lucius stalked over to the girl's side of the dungeons.

"Have you gone mad?" he bellowed at her.

She was halfway undressed out of her school robes, getting ready for bed, with only her skirt on and an opened blouse. She didn't mind if he saw her this way though, it was always look and don't touch…unless you didn't mind loosing a limb.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" she countered unamused.

"Bite me," he screamed.

"Oh no, Lucy, I was hoping my little friends would have done that," and a wicked smile crept over her lips.

"You're mad," he shouted, "You're plain out crazy; just like Druella!"

Tempers flared and she tackled him to the ground, "Don't you ever call my mother crazy you bastard!"

She scratched at him leaving bloody fingernail marks across his arms and neck.

"I only speak the truth," he laughed trying to control her, "Get off of me."

And he rolled her onto her back pinning her arms above her head.

"I hate you!" she screeched.

"Get off her," Severus called.

"Not until I get what I want," Lucius retorted.

Severus pulled him off of her and as soon as she was free, she was ready to lunge at him again.

"Let go of me," Bellatrix exclaimed when Rudolphus grabbed her to prevent her from seriously injuring Lucius.

"No."

Lucius let out a mad laugh, "See Bella, you are a nutter, and she is too. Guess it runs in the family."

She let out a scream and pushed farther to assault him, "I'll kill you."

"Not if I get to you first, darling," and with that he was pulled out of her bedroom by Severus.

xxx

"What the hell were you thinking?" Severus said tossing Lucius into the common room folding his arms in disgust.

"What?"

"Why did you bring Druella into it?"

"Why not?"

"Lucius, you know what I mean."

"Fine. It just came out. I swear she makes me more vex than anyone else I know."

"Druella's got a gift."

"Gift smift. So she can see the future, it doesn't mean she's got her head on."

"Lucius, let me give you a piece of advice."

"What?"

"If you don't want a sack full of cobras and poisoned daggers in your bed, the next time you decide to play touchy-subject-torture with Belle, I suggest you don't."

xxx

"She's not crazy!" Bellatrix called out after the two boys scattered out her door.

"She's not crazy," Bella repeated again and again until she collapsed on the floor in tears.

"We know she's not," Rudolphus whispered clutching her.

"Leave me alone," she muttered emotionlessly.

"Let me help you," he told her.

"Do what?"

"Feel better," and he kissed her.

Bellatrix pulled away with vengeance.

"Get out," she pushed, "I don't need that kind of help."

"C'mon Bella," he started.

"No," she got up off the floor and passed her hands through her hair, "Is that what you think of me?"

"Bella, you know I don't," he tried to continue.

"No, I don't, not everything Lucius Malfoy says is stone, Rudolphus," she stammered.

"I know that," he defended.

"Do you now?" she was regaining herself, "Because frankly the only reason you would kiss me, to 'make me feel better', as you so nicely covered it, would be due to the descriptions of lies told by Malfoy."

"And you know what else?" she continued, "I know better than that."

"I didn't mean-" he tried to explain to her.

"Of course you didn't, but it's done. Now get out!" and she pointed to the door.

"Bellatrix come on, it was just a kiss," he tried to explain in her doorway.

"Just kiss?" she folded her arms across her chest, "No, Rudolphus, with you I don't want just a kiss. I want it _all_," and she slammed the door in his face.

xxx

"You didn't have to stalk off like that," Narcissa scolded at Andromeda later that night.

"I'm so sick of them."

"Andy, I hate having to run after you."

"Sorry to waste you precious time."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Of course you didn't," and Andromeda was being sincere.

"Look, I'll talk to Lucius."

"You do that."

xxx

Lucius found Bellatrix in her favorite spot the next morning after breakfast by the lake.

"What do you want?" She asked him looking, "Come to torment me more?"

He showed no emotion on his face, "No. If you would like to know, I rather came to call a truce with you."

She laughed, "A truce?"

He didn't laugh with her.

"Morgan Le Fey, you're serious?" she exclaimed.

He held his hands behind his back, "Yes, I'm serious."

She raised an eyebrow, "Why are you being so dashing?"

"Am I always not?" he asked.

"No, you're not," she answered.

"I think we could be well together, and when the dark lord assembles us, we can be unstoppable."

"The dark lord?" she asked.

"The dark lord," he answered, "Think about it, we are stronger in numbers. Numbers that work well together."

"I'm not joining Tom's army, Lucius."

"I beg to differ."

"How so?"

"May I sit down?" he asked.

"I'm not stopping you," she answered.

"I would rather not risk sitting on something that could seriously harm my chances of procreation, clearance seems safer," he said.

She was amused and a cruel smile crept over her lips.

He sat down and apologized for lashing out at her about her mother; Bellatrix took it to heart, Lucius Malfoy never apologized.

xxx

She was sleeping when he returned to her again. In her head, Tom created stories on top of the visions she was already having. Sometimes, she woke up sweating, thinking she was going mad.

He filled her head with thoughts of himself, her and him together, thoughts of balls and grand affairs, things that were so extravagant they played into her family's high societal needs and requirements.

"Tom," she moaned thrashing in her bed. "Tom."

"You called Belle," he whispered.

Her eyes flew opened and he was laying beside her staring at her.

"Oh gods, oh gods," and she grabbed him, hugging him to her shaking.

"Shhh," he whispered. "I'll keep you safe."

He felt her shake her head 'no.'

"No, you won't," she muffled into his neck. When he tried to pull away, she tugged him back.

"Stop shaking," he commanded softy.

"I can't," she responded.

"Come with me," he told her. Tom picked her up and held her, while he sat on her bed. He rocked her back and forth, back and forth. "I can teach you things, _my_ darling, Belle. I can teach you to make the world your very own."

She looked up at him then, and he kissed the bridge of her nose. He kissed her cheek and then her forehead. Bellatrix, snuggled closer to him. "I graduate in a year, speak to me then."

"Who are you to be making demands, little one?" he asked continuing to rock her.

"The only one who can make demands," she hiccupped.

"Shhh," he whispered, her shaking hadn't subsided. "I insist Belle, stop this shaking," he repeated softly.

"I can't," she told him once again.

xxx

Severus was in the Slytherin common room when Narcissa appeared before him; it was after midnight.

"Hello Severus," she said quietly. He was reading in front the fire place.

"Good night Narcissa," he answered not looking up. "What brings you down from your slumber tonight?"

"I couldn't sleep," she told him.

"Ah ha, I see," he said dryly.

She didn't say anything else, but rather stood there waiting for him to say something to her.

"Your feet are bare, you'll catch cold, the dungeon floors are cold," he said suddenly, still reading his book. "When will you learn Narcissa?"

"I didn't think you were paying me that much attention," she responded.

"At least sit down, you silly girl," he commanded.

"I don't want to interrupt you," she said.

"Narcissa, if you didn't want to interrupt me, you wouldn't have come down here," he looked up at her then. "Come here."

She tip-toed gently over to him, raising her long, nightgown, so that she could walk gracefully towards him.

"That's a good girl," he told her, as she snuggled against him. "Now tell me, why did you _really_ come down here?"

He felt her inhale deeply, "I'm frightened."

"What?" he laughed.

"I'm scared," she told him again. "I know what's going to happen, I've been denying it for days, for weeks even. Gods, Severus, _he's_ after Bella, and Lucius is going to join him, and …dear, me…I can't…"

"You can't what exactly?" he asked silkily feeling her get closer to him.

"What if it all goes wrong? I'm going to loose my sister…"

"You've already lost her," he said.

"Can you watch over her, please Sev, please?" her voice was cracking and she grabbed his collar.

Severus sat there unmoved, and just let Narcissa cry, pull, tug, and gnaw at him.

"I…" he started. His deep voice cutting into her whimpering, "can't make you promises, Cissa, but I can try – if I can."

"I love you Sev, no one could ask for a better friend, a better brother – you are the brother I don't have, know that, I want you too, you are…for me," she hugged him.

"Cissa?" he asked, a few moments later.

"Hmm?" she asked resting on his shoulder, still hiccupping.

"Why didn't you go to Lucius? I thought, you had…a…vested interest in him?"

She looked up at him then, "Lucius, as it pains me to say it, will never be the man you are. I love him, Sev, I do, but he's run wild with her…you…on the other hand…."

"Yes?"

"You'll always have your head on, I trust you with my soul."

"Does he know you love him?" he asked.

"No," she whispered. "I think he has an idea, but he spends far too much time, playing games with Bellatrix."

"I see," Severus said monotonously.

"And you?" she asked.

"What about me?" he answered her question with a question.

"Whose the girl you pine over?" she asked.

He let out a light laugh, "She's no one."

"Not that Evans girl, right?" she asked.

She watched him lick his lips, and run his hand through his hair. "Certainly not, _not_ the Evans girl at all."

"You stopped talking to her didn't you?" she prodded. 

"Why do you ask?" his voice became stern.

"Don't be tense, I'm sorry," she told him. "It's just, I know you live next to her, I know you used to be around her, I've seen you….but not anymore. I was just curious."

"There is nothing to be curious about," he said. "Lily and I, do not speak anymore. I have found _more worthy_ than her."

"Sev?" Narcissa said meekly.

"Yes?"

"Thank you," and she kissed his cheek. Her lips lingered for a few moments.

He stared at her as she moved her lips to his, she brushed them over, quickly and softly.

"I _never_ meant you, you know," he said.

"I know."

xxx

Lucius was returning from his Head Boy rounds, when he saw Narcissa disappear up the stairs to the girl's quarters.

"What'd she want?" he asked Severus.

"Nothing of consequence," Severus responded. He got up, stretched and followed Lucius up the stairs to the boy's quarters.

"You like her, eh?" Lucius baited.

"She's tolerable, mate, tolerable," Severus answered.

"Nah, she's beautiful," Lucius confided.

"Is she now?" Severus asked, eye-brows raised. "What about Bellatrix?"

"What about her?"

"I just thought – with all that animosity, you _must_ have a soft spot for her," Severus told him.

"I do. But you've seen her, she's unstable. Besides, I prefer _Barbies_."

"Barbies? Lucius, do you even know what a Barbie is?" Severus laughed.

"Well, _no_, not really. I've just heard you describe blonde girls as such. You've called Cissa that a few times, no?"

"Ummm, yea, yes I have."

xxx

"Take me away from here," said Bellatrix.

"I can't, not now," Tom told her when he finally placed her back on her bed laying down. "Think about what I said," he continued. "I can make the world, _just_ for you."

"All of it?" she asked.

"All of it," he confirmed.

"Tom?"

"Yes?"

"Can you leave my dreams alone tonight?" Her eyes were closed and she was snuggled underneath her covers.

"No," he whispered. But she was already asleep.


End file.
